India’s Reliance plans 2 new gas pipelines -govt

Mumbai: India’s Reliance Industries Ltd plans to build two gas pipelines in southern India, the government said on 30 March adding this could help the energy explorer supply gas from its deep-sea fields to retail consumers.

By using petrochemicals and oil refiners, the aim is to produce 80 million cubic metres of gas a day (mmscmd) by mid-2008 from its two fields in the prolific Krishna Godavari basin, off the southern state of Andhra Pradesh.

India’s Oil Ministry said in an advertisement on 30 March that Reliance Gas Transportation Infrastructure Ltd, a group firm, had submitted a proposal to lay a 670 km pipeline from Chennai to Tuticorin in the southern state of Tamil Nadu.

It also wants to build another 660 km pipeline from Chennai to Mangalore in the neighbouring state of Karnataka, via Bangalore, the ministry said.

Reliance is already constructing a 1,400 km (870 mile) pipeline to transport natural gas from the deep-sea fields off India’s east coast to the western regions of the country.

Earlier this month, P M S Prasad, head of Reliance’s oil and gas business, said the company planned to build city gas distribution networks in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka and also in Maharashtra and Gujarat in the west and West Bengal in the east.

The Oil Ministry said the two new projects are to be developed on a common carrier basis, making it mandatory for Reliance to offer 33% of each pipeline’s total capacity to other firms.

“The interested party would have to enter into a take or pay contract or any other mutually agreeable contract with the owner for usage of the proposed pipeline,” the ministry said.